Kean Student Captures Airplane Emergency Landing at Newark International Airport
By Antony Reyna | Published November 17, 2022
A United Airlines flight departing from Newark International Airport en route to Sao Paulo, Brazil was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff once sparks began to shoot out from the back of the plane.
Murtalla Mbacke, Kean University Student and Aviation Photographer was able to witness the event live and capture footage of it.
“I finished my shift at work and planned on doing some night aviation photography. I love aviation, it’s a pretty cool field. I naturally took up photography as a result,” Mbacke said.
“Due to the nature of aviation photography, I constantly check a flight tracking app called Flightradar24. I saw on the app that UA149, which is the flight headed to São Paulo, Brazil, was on the runway preparing to take off.”
Mbacke was setting up in his usual location to capture some images of the flight when he noticed the plane was letting off an orange glow in the sky.
“My initial reaction was that it was an engine failure, which is major,” Mbacke said. “I instantly pull out my phone and still in shock, I start recording.”
Footage of the plane was immediately posted to Mbacke’s Instagram story in hopes to get the word out about the ongoing incident. According to Mbacke, he has connections with multiple pilots who fly in and out of Newark International Airport regularly.
Fortunately, air traffic control was already working on fixing the issue by the time Mbacke was able to speak to somebody.
The 8-hour flight which takes place daily from Newark to Sao Paulo had 256 passengers onboard. The pilots were forced to circle over the Atlantic Ocean near the New Jersey border for about an hour and a half to burn enough fuel to be under the required landing weight before they finally returned to the ground around 1 a.m.
Despite following many aircraft accidents online in the past, this was the first that Mbacke had seen unfold live.
“Never I would’ve imagined that I would witness one in real life… I was pretty shocked,” he told ABC News 7 Eyewitness News.
Following the incident which took place on Sept. 22, The Federal Aviation Administration has begun an investigation and released the following statement, “United Airlines Flight 149, a Boeing 777-200, landed safely at Newark Liberty International Airport shortly before 1 a.m. local time today after the crew reported an emergency. The flight departed Newark and was headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil before it returned. The FAA will investigate.”
The FAA has yet to provide an update on the situation or what could have caused the malfunction to occur.